What’s At Stake In Lebanon And Gaza?
The attacks on Israeli troops by Hamas and Hizbollah are very unlikely to have been co-ordinated but the effect, a multiplier effect, is as though they were. Both operations, were carried out from territory Israel had evacuated, both resulted in the capture of Israeli soldiers and both have been used as the “cassus belli” for a war of punishment by Israel that targets civilians in the hope of fomenting civil war.
- Israel’s reaction to the two events essentially has been the same:
- Rejection of any negotiation or prisoner swap – which both Hamas and Hizbollah have forward as their core demand.
- A “shock and awe” campaign in Gaza and Lebanon targetting civilians in the hope of pressurising the fighters on them to release the captives.
